Smoking gun still smoking (after all these years)

Are we commemorating the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination this month? Or the 20th anniversary of the 30th anniversary? Tonight's JFK-themed documentary (hardly the last of a steady onslaught) leans toward the latter.

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Posted Nov. 2, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 14, 2013 at 1:31 PM

Posted Nov. 2, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 14, 2013 at 1:31 PM

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Are we commemorating the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination this month? Or the 20th anniversary of the 30th anniversary? Tonight's JFK-themed documentary (hardly the last of a steady onslaught) leans toward the latter.

"JFK: The Smoking Gun" (8 and 10 Sunday night on Reelz, TV-PG) dusts off a 20-year-old theory about the murder based on ballistic analysis and detective work old and new.

Back in the 1960s, marksman and ballistics expert Howard Donahue participated in re-enactments of the shooting commissioned by CBS. He then became obsessed by the findings of the Warren Commission. Based largely on the nature of the president's wounds, he determined that the explosive third "head shot" could not have been fired from Lee Harvey Oswald's relatively primitive rifle.

Donahue's findings were later incorporated into a 1992 book, "Mortal Error," by Bonar Menninger, which theorized that the third shot came from an accidental firing of a Secret Service agent's automatic rifle.

In "The Smoking Gun," Australian detective Colin McLaren revisits the evidence and finds more to buttress Donahue and Menniger's theories. Even if you don't buy into the notion that a Secret Service agent accidentally shot the president, McLaren raises disturbing questions about the agency's peculiar behavior after the shooting, in Parkland Hospital, during the president's rushed and chaotic autopsy and during subsequent weeks when evidence and photographs simply disappeared. McLaren also suggests that figures on the Warren Commission — most notably the late Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania — did a strategically selective job of inviting and interviewing witnesses.

Featuring re-enactments, interviews and archival footage, "The Smoking Gun" is filled with the repetition endemic to basic cable histories. While certainly provocative, it turns an hourlong story into a two-hour ordeal. In contrast, an installment of "America Declassified" (10 Sunday night on Travel, TV-PG) squeezes a glance back at Dealey Plaza into an hour, but also includes a visit to a giant "quiet zone" and a nuclear dump site.

Is "The Thundermans" (9 tonight on Nickelodeon, TV-G) the most annoying show ever broadcast? Probably not. But it's a dreadful example of "comedy" aimed at young people, a loud and abrasive punch line-clotted live action cartoon that treats its audience with contempt.

In a story lifted from "The Incredibles," this series concerns a family of superheroes who "retire" to a normal life after the crime-fighting parents decide they need to concentrate on raising their four kids. Most of the shenanigans concern teen twins, Phoebe (Kira Kosarin) and Max (Jack Griffo), who continually bicker. She wants to be normal and have slumber parties with girlfriends. Max spends time in his basement laboratory making mischief, like blowing up Pluto or carving his initials on the lunar surface using laser beams.

There's nothing original or intrinsically wrong about a family sitcom involving superhero misfits. It's what made "Bewitched" and "The Munsters" beloved for decades. And the level of humor here (jokes between kids about armpit bacteria and food fights) is on par with most shows aimed at the pre-adolescent.

But the onslaught of one-liners is wearisome in the extreme. Every moment of dialogue consists of a setup line, a punch line and a laugh track repeated over and over again. That's it. There are no moments of slow buildup, pregnant pauses or silent reaction shots. "The Thundermans" presents one obvious and contrived belly laugh after another, as if the writers felt the viewers might get bored should they have to think, or breathe, for a single second.

The title says everything. For starters, it features a list. Apparently, we can't digest anything if it isn't presented in bullet form. And, rather than things you "should" know, it's what you "don't" know. So, like much of basic cable, it's built on the assumption of our ignorance.

Sarah Lancaster stars in the 2013 potboiler "The Preacher's Mistress" (8 tonight on Lifetime) about an adulterous minister whose life is upended when his wife is found murdered.

If scripted tales of adultery and violence aren't your cup of poisoned tea, there's the docudrama "I'd Kill For You" (9 tonight on ID, TV-14), concerning an affair that takes a dark turn.

— Texas Tech hosts Oklahoma State in college football (7 on Fox).

— Horseracing in The Breeders' Cup Classic (8 on NBC), live from Santa Anita Park in California.

— Florida State hosts Miami in college football (8 on ABC).

— Louis falls under suspicion on "Dancing on the Edge" (9 on Starz, TV-MA).